Brendan the Navigator

by Jean Fritz, Enrico Arno (Illustrator)

Recounts St. Brendan's life and voyage to North America long before the Vikings arrived.

Genres: History, Biography, Childrens, Classics, Catholic, Picture Books

31 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Jean Guttery Fritz was an American children's writer best known for American biography and history. She won the Children's Legacy Literature Award for her career contribution to American children's literature in 1986. She turned 100 in November 2015 and died in May 2017 at the age of 101.

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

11/10: I enjoyed it! This book does a great job of telling the story as a legend. We don't know what of it is truth and what is fiction, but there is a spirit of discovery about it and some evidence that it is based in truth. Also, it clearly shows St. Brendan as flawed, holy but flawed. Too often we think of saints as "perfect people." I love cranky saints. They give me hope.

[Congetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story about a saint (or really the Irish) that may have landed in North America earlier than Leif Erickson. It was interesting that she mentioned he was cranky much of the time. Not eating will do that! We loved the illustrations by Enrico Arno. We are going to try to imitate and draw his pictures too.

[Alicia Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is definitely 4+ stars. I really enjoyed the way it weaves together "fact and fancy." On the first page it describes lumps of truth in stories from Ireland. This book does exactly that. I love the beautiful blue and black illustrations, the two colors mimicking the possibility of fact and fiction. The language is mature yet casual. I loved it.

[Indra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book out loud to my children age 8 and 10 as part of our medieval unit. Fritz tells the tale with humor. My daughter was surprised that Brendan was a crank. The kids are enjoying learning about all the possible people who may have traveled to America from Europe before Columbus.

[Heather Why · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great telling of a lesser known saint here in America with wonderfully creative illustrations.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great combination of story and history.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to St. Brendan! Fritz's book covered the entire story quickly, but still included tons of interesting details to keep the reader engaged. It was fun learning not just about St. Brendan's famous voyage, but about his personality, too (I somewhat appreciate that he was a bit of a grump). I like too, that Fritz not only explains how this route had been taken by others (thus proving that it could be true) but that she also explains how certain things could be explained (the crystal island could be an iceberg, the giants throwing rocks could have been a volcano erupting, etc.)

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read for kids.

[Amanda]

One of the best first paragraphs I've read, but the book as a whole was just meh for me.